


Quarantine

by Soloveyko



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF, Music RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: AU, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Coronavirus AU, Eurovision, Eurovision 2020, Gen, Quarantine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 15,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23073730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soloveyko/pseuds/Soloveyko
Summary: With a Coronavirus quarantine and potential killer robots on the loose, one thing was for sure. The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest certainly wasn't going to be boring.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

Jeangu Macrooy looked down at the paper again and again, reading the words over and over but they still didn't sink in. The EBU had made their final decision. The Eurovision Song Contest was to be held without an audience for the first time ever due to fears of the mysterious new virus COVID-19, better known as Coronavirus. The virus had been spreading all over the world, leading to many countries taking harsh measures to try and stop the spread. Some were more successful than others. Many concerts and events around the world were being postponed or outright cancelled, but Jeangu had held onto hope that Eurovision was going to be an exception. Now that hope was gone. Gone when that single piece of paper had been posted through the letterbox of the hotel that morning. They didn't even have the courage to come and tell them directly.  
"Jeangu," a voice interrupted him, "Did you hear the news?"  
That was the Croatian entrant, Damir Kedžo.  
"Yeah Damir, I heard," Jeangu replied.  
"No audience," Damir said, "That's going to be a tough one."  
Jeangu looked down at the paper once again.  
"Looking at that won't help, you know," Damir said, "There's nothing we can do about it, anyway."  
Jeangu sighed. Damir was right, there was nothing they could do, the best thing to do now would be to wait for more info from the EBU.

* * *

It was night, and no more news had come in from the EBU. The EBU had promised that they would explain everything to them before the end of the day, but it looked like they didn't really know what was going on either. The contestants were all sitting in the lobby, waiting for news that would calm them down. Right now, the atmosphere in the hotel was very tense, a lot of the contestants were worried about what was going to happen now. Yet more time passed and the EBU still didn't come. Some of the entrants were starting to grow impatient. They had been waiting for hours at this point.  
"Right," Vasil said, "This is ridiculous. Obviously no news is coming. If they don't come in the next few minutes I'm going to go to bed. Hate when they waste our time like this."  
"Yeah," Samanta said, "I agree. They're not coming now. They probably forgot about us or something."  
But they hadn't forgotten. The people at the EBU just had no idea of what to do. Nothing like this had ever come up before. They had never had to do this or anything like this ever.  
Meanwhile, Tornike was explaining what was happening around the world with the quarantines. America's radical new way of dealing with the virus had come under a lot of criticism.  
"So, you see," Tornike was looking down at his phone and reading the news, "In America they have these robots that fly around and can scan for Coronavirus. But if you're caught outside breaking the quarantine... they can also..."  
Tornike trailed off. He didn't want to finish that sentence.  
"What?" Arilena said, "What do they do?"  
"They shoot them," Damir Kedžo replied, "Those robots in America... if you're caught breaking the quarantine, they shoot you."  
Tornike nodded. Arilena was shocked, she almost didn't believe it at first, but when she went to check on her phone, there was plenty of video evidence to prove what Tornike was saying. The robots were quick, and powerful. And, from the video footage, it seemed that they were everywhere in America. There was also talk of America sending the robots to other countries. If those robots were brought here, they wouldn't just have the quarantine and Coronavirus to contend with, but something even worse than both of them.  
"What? What if they bring that here?" Arilena said, still looking at the videos.  
"Luckily," Jeangu said, "We would never do something like that. You are all safe here in the Netherlands, I promise."  
"Bloody Yanks," James Newman said, "In the time they took to make those flying shooting robots, they could have made a cure for that bloody virus."  
"That's true," Jeangu said, "But they wasted all their energy making weapons instead. Sad, really."  
Suddenly, the door burst open and Jon Ola Sand came rushing inside along with two other EBU officials. He had an extremely worried look on his face.  
"600 new cases in the Netherlands today, 600!" Jon Ola Sand said to one of the officials standing next to him.  
"Actually," Diodato spoke up, "The news said that it was 600 new cases in Rotterdam alone."  
Jon nearly dropped his papers on hearing that. He had to take a few seconds to compose himself before he turned to face the entrants.  
"Eurovision contestants," he said, "I'm sure you are all aware of the Coronavirus going around. It is here in Rotterdam. It is everywhere at this point. Big crowds spread it and going outside is a risk as well. So, not only will the contest be held without an audience, you are all to stay in this hotel as much as possible, please."  
The awkward silence felt like it lasted forever. No one knew what to say to that. Finally, someone said something.  
"Alright," Athena said, "We understand."  
"Thank you, Athena," Jon said as he and the other EBU officials quickly left the hotel without saying another word. It seemed they didn't want to be around for some reason. Maybe they didn't want to answer any of the many questions that the contestants must have had.  
"Why did he leave so quickly?" Daði asked.  
"Avoiding us, probably," Jeangu said, "Anyway, we're under quarantine now, I guess, and there's nothing we can do about it."  
"It's not just us," Diodato said, looking at his phone, "The whole of Rotterdam is going to be placed under quarantine. Government orders."  
Many of the Eurovision entrants were shocked, but Diodato had expected something like this. After all, Italy had been under quarantine for a couple of months now. Diodato was lucky he had been allowed out to go to the contest, but now it seemed he would be under quarantine once again.  
So that was that. Quarantine was declared and the Eurovision entrants were to stay in the hotel until further notice. The press area, where people usually waited to interview the entrants, had no one standing there. The Eurovision Village, which had been so carefully set up for the fans, was completely empty. No one was allowed in. The whole atmosphere of the contest was so different now. So empty. The entrants just hoped that this would be a minor inconvenience, that this wouldn't turn into anything serious. But you don't always get what you wish for.


	2. Chapter 2

They just sat there for a while, not saying anything. The silence in the hotel was almost unbearable. No one really knew what to say or do at this point. Looking at the internet didn't help, and of course, with all the quarantines and shutdowns around the world, people had a lot more time to spend on the internet. Arilena kept scrolling through the stories, even though she knew she shouldn't. Even though she knew they would just make her feel even worse than she already did. The Eurovision fansites weren't helping. One site was posting that the entrants wouldn't be allowed back home after Eurovision because their home countries simply wouldn't take them back. That was certainly a new story, they hadn't heard that one before and it was very worrying indeed. Being trapped in Rotterdam's quarantine didn't sound very appealing.  
"Hey, this can't be true, right?" Arilena said, "People are saying that we won't be allowed to go home after the contest?"  
"If there even is a contest..." Vasil muttered under his breath.  
"The contest will probably happen," Daði said, "If it doesn't, well, people are more important than a TV show. We'll be alright, as long as everyone is ok, that is what really matters. And I'm sure we'll all be allowed home after the event, it would be silly not to. After all, the virus has already spread everywhere, what would keeping us here really achieve?"  
Daði was becoming somewhat of a voice of reason, and it was hard to argue with him. Still, it didn't make the problems go away. Plus, it seemed that the global situation was getting even worse, and not just because of the virus. People were blaming Italy, saying it was their fault that the virus had spread to Europe. In fact it seemed that a lot of countries were having tensions with Italy. Some countries were even talking about war. People in the comments section of the site Arilena was looking out were encouraging what they called 'action against Italy.'  
Arilena looked up to see Diodato looking over her shoulder, looking very sad indeed.  
"Dio..." Arilena began.  
"Don't," Diodato replied, "I already know what people are saying about my country..."  
"You're not reading about that war with Italy stuff, are you?" Damir said, "Don't worry, that won't happen. A war with Italy would solve nothing."  
"Damir is right," Daði said, "What would be the point of that? It would just make everything worse than it already is."  
And it wouldn't. But that didn't change the fact that a lot of European leaders wanted to do something bad to Italy.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jon Ola Sand was walking through Rotterdam Airport. The whole airport was mainly empty. There were only a couple of people around apart from him. Things were so different now because of the virus. Only a few months ago this airport had been busy, full of people. And now, it was lifeless. But people were right to be afraid. There had already been 104 more confirmed cases of the virus in the short walk from the hotel to the airport. Maybe just having the show with no audience wouldn't cut it. Maybe just having the show take place at all was a risk. It was looking more and more likely that the Eurovision Song Contest might have to be postponed... or even cancelled altogether. That was the reason Jon had come here. He was waiting for someone. A special person from the EBU who had come, despite everything, to make the final decision on this. Christer Björkman.  
It hadn't been easy for Christer to get a flight out of Sweden, but here he was.  
"Jon!" Christer said.  
"Glad you could make it," Jon said.  
"Yes, I was thinking about just calling you and not coming in person, but I couldn't do it," Christer said, "I just had to be here, virus or no virus. Besides, Sweden is doing even worse than this place right now."  
"Right," Jon said as the two of them walked out of the airport, "So, things don't look good. How are we going to deal with this?"  
"I'm going to be honest with you," Christer said, "The virus is spreading even more than we first thought. We might be looking at the first time ever that the Eurovision Song Contest gets cancelled."

* * *

In the hotel, the entrants were still sitting around, most of them not doing much. Arilena was still scrolling through on her phone, looking for any new information that could help them. What she found was the complete opposite.  
"Guys..." Arilena said, her voice sounding worried.  
"What is it now?" Vasil said, "You reading more of those Coronavirus scare stories on the internet? You shouldn't read that junk, you know. No one is going to war with Italy or whatever."  
"It's those robots from America," Arilena said, ignoring Vasil, "People on the internet are saying that shipments of them are flying to Europe right now. And some of them are due to land here. They're going to be used all over the world now."  
Silence fell once again. They didn't know if it was true or not, but they did know that those quarantine robots in America were causing even more deaths than the virus itself. If you were out during quarantine, they would shoot you, effectively trapping everyone in their homes, and killing anyone who dared to venture outside. They didn't even want to think about what that would mean for them in the hotel. Now it wasn't just the virus they had to worry about.  
"It won't happen," Gjon said, "They said that would never happen here."  
They. The leaders of the world who had told everyone they were going to be safe, even when they knew they weren't.  
"They said a lot of things, Gjon," Arilena replied, "But they lied about all of them. Why trust those people now? They either don't know or are lying to us."  
Gjon didn't have an answer for that.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the second day of the quarantine when EBU officials turned up to the hotel, all wearing hazmat suits. They came in, looked around the hotel for some reason, and then, as quickly as they had come in, they left again. It shocked a lot of the contestants to see people walking around the hotel like that.  
"Why do they have to be dressed like that though?" Damir said, sounding very worried, "Do they know something we don't?"  
"They sure do," Arilena said, "I've been reading up on the virus again and-"  
"Cool it with the conspiracy theories, Arilena," Efendi said, "No one here has Coronavirus, so if no one here has it and no one else is coming here, then there's no way we could get it."  
"We wouldn't know that," said Tom Leeb, "The incubation period is really long supposedly. Anyone here could have it right now and we wouldn't even know it."  
"Don't say stuff like that," Daði leaned over and whispered, "We already have so many people freaking out in here."  
"And for good reason!" Vasil said, overhearing Daði, "Who knows what is going to happen now? No one. Not us, not the EBU, not the Dutch government. No one!"  
"Yeah, and if no one here has it," Arilena said, "If they're so sure of that... then what's with the suits?"  
Daði, who usually had an answer to all the scare stories circulating, didn't have a reply to that.  
"A... precaution, maybe?" Gjon suggested.  
"Some precaution," Arilena said, "They must think someone here has it. But who?"

* * *

When Benny Cristo woke up that day, he felt off. He had a strange headache and didn't really want to get out of bed, but he could hear Hurricane singing in the next room, which was probably what woke him up in the first place. He hoped it wasn't the Coronavirus. He wasn't sure what would happen if he had it. He certainly didn't want to give it to anyone else, but they were all stuck in here now. The hospitals in the Netherlands were all full and he didn't think they would be taking in anyone who had a milder case of the disease. So he'd be stuck here and probably have to stay in his room all day.   
Hurricane were there singing their Eurovision song 'Hasta la Vista,' and if Benny hadn't been feel so bad he would have been enjoying it, but now just wasn't the time. Benny tapped on the wall to speak to Hurricane, that's how thin the walls were in the hotel.  
"Can you guys cool it?" Benny said, "Trying to sleep in the next room."  
"Oh, sorry Benny," Sanja said, "We were just practicing before the big night."  
"There probably won't even be a big night at this point," Benny said.  
"There will," said Knesija, "Everything will be fine. There'll be no audience and that's sad, but the television audience will be millions of people!"  
"Yeah," Ivana chirped in, "Especially now that everyone is stuck inside."  
Benny smiled at that.  
"Don't worry Benny, we'll go somewhere else to practice," Sanja said, "Have a good sleep, see you later!"  
"Alright," Benny said, "See you guys later, good luck."  
He could hear Hurricane walking off, probably to go to one of the many big empty rooms in the hotel. Benny knew he should have gone back to sleep at this point, but he couldn't help but reach for his phone and search for one thing.  
'Coronavirus symptoms.'  
The results seemed to match how he was feeling, but he still hoped against hope that it was something else, that he didn't have the virus. But he knew that it was probably Coronavirus. And if he had it, then who else here had it? Did he get it from one of the other entrants, or was he the only one?

* * *

Meanwhile, Diodato was in a video call with Mahmood, Italy's Eurovision entrant from last year. Some of the other contestants were sat around too, listening to what Mahmood had to say and talking to him. Mahmood was telling everyone about the quarantine and lockdown in Italy. Most things were closed there now. The once busy streets were empty, tourist hotspots completely abandoned. Mahmood told them about how it was living life under complete lockdown, something the Eurovision entrants, except Diodato, were just getting used to. He was also telling everyone about the escalating threats against Italy from other countries. American president Donald Trump had gone on another rant against Italy earlier that day, his third one this week.  
"It's not fair, really," Mahmood said, "It's not our fault things have gotten so bad. It could have been any country that got hit by this, it's just that we were the first in Europe."  
He was right, but it didn't change anything. America were blaming Italy for everything. America needed China for their manufacturing industry, and so Italy were an easy scapegoat. And when America began blaming Italy, the whole world followed. There were plenty of people who wanted retaliation against Italy for what they saw as causing this whole problem. But that was exactly what the world didn't need. World War Three right on top of a pandemic.


	4. Chapter 4

And so it went on. Rotterdam's lockdown became even more restrictive and the entrants were all still stuck in the hotel, with no more information from the EBU about what was happening. With nothing else to do, the entrants took to the internet. Arilena continued to read up on the theories about the virus, and continued to tell everyone about it. But a lot of the entrants didn't want to talk about the virus. They just wanted a break from it. They just wanted to think about literally anything else.  
"Ok, all this virus talk is getting boring," Blas Cantó said as he picked up the remote for the nearby TV, "Let's watch something on the TV instead."  
He switched the television on but it was futile. All the news channels were reporting on the pandemic and even non-news channels had been overtaken by Coronavirus updates and news. There was only one channel that had something slightly different but still related to the virus, and it was a report on what was going on in Montenegro. Montenegro had withdrawn from Eurovision this year after D-Mol's poor result in 2019, but there was another reason that everyone was talking about the small Balkan nation. Montenegro was the only country in Europe without any reported cases of Coronavirus. While everyone else had rising cases that grew day by day, Montenegro had none. In response to this, they had built a giant wall around the entire country, to keep anyone who may possibly be carrying the virus out. It seemed like it had been effective so far. Still zero reports, the only nation unaffected in the entire world. It had baffled everyone how only tiny Montenegro had managed to avoid the pandemic. A few minutes later the report was over and the regular Coronavirus news resumed.   
Blas switched the channel again and it went to another news channel which was showing a Donald Trump rally in New York.  
"Hey, don't switch over again," Diodato said, "I need to hear what he is saying about Italy."  
"Alright," Blas said, "You have to remember that nobody blames Italy though. We don't blame you for any of this."  
Even though Blas said that, Donald Trump was saying something completely different.  
"It was Italy that started all of this," Donald said as his supporters cheered behind him. The crowd was very small, but it surprised them that any crowd had been allowed there at all because of the virus. Especially with America's brutal quarantine measures. Somehow he had still gotten a couple of supporters to stand around him and cheer.  
"Italy caused this and believe me, Italy will pay for this, they will," Donald continued as the few supporters there cheered even louder. America, the country that had no problem using robots to attack people who went outside for any reason, were now threatening Italy. This wasn't good at all. Diodato just hoped that it was all just words, that he wouldn't actually do anything to Italy. But he knew that anti-Italian sentiment was rising worldwide. He knew there were plenty of people who wanted action, who wanted Italy to be punished. Even if it would just make everything worse.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jon Ola Sand sat there with Christer Björkman and some EBU officials. Some others were connected to them via Skype, too scared of the virus to come to the meeting in-person. This was a crisis meeting. The situation was getting worse every day. Maybe it wouldn't be enough to host the contest without an audience. Maybe it would be better to just cancel the whole thing or at least postpone it. Still, it would be very hard, if not impossible, to get all of the entrants back to their home countries, so they would still be stuck in the hotel, even if the decision was made to cancel.  
They sat in silence for a while, no one knew how to start. Suddenly, they were interrupted by another man walking into the room. Rotterdam's mayor.  
"I don't think this event can go ahead," he said, "I would like it to. But I just can't see it happening."  
"I can't see it either," Jon said, truthfully, "We have done everything in our power to have the Eurovision take place, but..."  
"Don't worry," replied the mayor, "We still have two weeks before the event. That's extra time to decide. Extra time for the virus to dissipate."  
Jon smiled slightly. The mayor sounded hopeful, even if he shouldn't be. The Coronavirus showed no sign of stopping, but there were still people who hoped that it would just go away. But Jon Ola Sand knew that these things didn't just go away on their own.


	5. Chapter 5

It was only a couple of minutes later when a loud knock came from the hotel front door. That was weird, they weren't expecting any visitors. Especially not to a hotel that was in quarantine. Daði went towards the door, but Lesley tugged on his sleeve.  
"Hey," Lesley said, "We don't even know who that is."  
"Oh, right," Daði said, "Um... who is it?"  
"It's me, last year's winner, Duncan Laurence, remember me?" came the voice from outside.  
"Well, that's good enough for me," Daði said, going to open the door but Lesley pulled on his sleeve again.  
"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked, "What if he has Coronavirus?"  
"What if you have Coronavirus?" Daði shrugged as he put the key in the lock, "What if anyone here has Coronavirus? We're not going to start throwing people out just in case. Don't worry, we'll deal with this virus but we won't lose our humanity. I won't let that happen, not here."  
Daði opened the door and Duncan rushed into the hotel.  
"Phew, good to be inside," Duncan said, "The whole city is on lockdown. I was coming over here to practise for the contest next week... if it even goes ahead, that is."  
"It'll go ahead," Tornike said, "With no audience, but it'll go ahead."  
"You haven't seen it out there," Duncan said, "Things are getting worse out there. Every day things keep getting worse. The EBU have had another meeting, but I don't know what was said."  
Duncan sat down on the couch, some of the entrants were relieved to have someone new over, others were worried about accepting more people into the hotel, which was already on lockdown.  
"Do we even have enough supplies for another person here?" Ulrikke asked, sounding concerned.  
"We have tons," said Ilya from Little Big, "Don't even worry about stuff like that."  
It was that moment when Sanja received a text on her phone. She was shocked when she read it.  
"Hey, guys," she said, "It's a text from Benny. He says he's in his bedroom and doesn't want to come out because he thinks he has Coronavirus? He asks if we could bring some food up to him and leave it outside the door?"  
"It's here..." Ulrikke said, "It's here already."  
"Coronavirus!" Vasil yelled, "In the hotel!"  
That's when the panic set in. For a lot of the entrants, this was too much. It felt like everyone started yelling and shouting all at once. Duncan just sat there on the couch and looked down, he sure had picked a bad time to come over. Tornike started recording the a video to post on Instagram later. He had been asked for updates a lot, although this probably wasn't the update that Eurovision fans had in mind.  
Daði looked at the scene in front of him and sighed.  
"Stop it, stop worrying everyone," Daði said, trying to speak up to be heard over the yelling, "Of course it was going to reach here eventually. It's everywhere, we can't do anything about that. Just try to stay calm, ok. I'll bring the food up to him, ok? Stay down here and stay calm, ok? Everything's going to be fine."  
"It's here," Ulrikke repeated, "It's here... it's here..."

* * *

  
Daði walked over to Benny's bedroom with the big plate of food and set it down in front of the door. Daði didn't open the door, just knocked on the door. He didn't want to end up catching it, or even worse, getting it and spreading it to other people.  
"Benny," Daði said, "Hey, everyone's freaking out down there. You think you have Coronavirus?"  
"Yeah," Benny said, "It matches the symptoms. What happened? I heard yelling, are they upset down there?"  
"They sure are," Daði replied, "They went nuts down there when you sent that text."  
"Damn," Benny grinned, "I wish I could have been there to see that."  
"I think Tornike recorded some of the drama on his phone," Daði said, "I'll get him to send it to you."  
"That would be great," Benny said, "Thanks for this."  
"Don't mention it. See you later Benny. Well, maybe not 'see,' but I'll stop by later, alright?"  
"Alright. Cheers."

* * *

Daði walked back into the room where the other entrants were. They weren't yelling anymore, which was good, but a lot of them seemed really on edge now.  
"Hey, have you all calmed down now?" Daði said, "Remember that Coronavirus victims are just regular people too. We should all be helping each other, virus or no virus."  
"That's right," Diodato said, "We really need to stick together right now, more than anything."  
"Won't he infect more people, just by being here?" Montaigne asked.  
"He's in his bedroom by himself and he hasn't come out," Daði said, "I think it's very unlikely that he'll infect anyone."  
"That real question is," Efendi said, "If he has it, who else has it? It can't only be him."  
That was a good point, and was the question on every entrant's mind. The all hoped it wasn't them, but they also knew that there was a high probablity that it wasn't just one person with it. With the way the virus had grown in other countries, they knew it could spread from person to person easily. They all just hoped that they weren't one of the unlucky ones.


	6. Chapter 6

The atmosphere after Benny's text was really tense. Things sure felt different now that there was a Coronavirus case in the hotel with them, even if it wasn't a confirmed case. Things had been bad before with the lockdown, but now they were even worse.  
"So are they going to test him or what?" Montaigne said.  
"I don't know," Tornike said, "What do they even do in this situation?"  
"They won't test. The tests are running out," Duncan said, "I think they'll just say they think he has it and to treat him as if he does have it."  
"Shouldn't they move him somewhere else, away from us?" Montaigne said.  
"You're right. I told the EBU about this and all they said was 'we'll do something about it,'" Efendi said, "A whole day later and still nothing?"  
"The whole country is dealing with this right now, Efendi," Duncan said, "It's not just us. We have to remember that thousands of people are getting this every day. They can't hospitalise everyone. They already said mild cases should just isolate themselves. He's in his bedroom all day now, how much more isolated can he get?"  
"He's still with us in the building," Efendi said, "The EBU should move him for our own protection, no?"  
"Look, what's going on isn't great," Diodato said, "But we'll deal with it. We can't do anything about the situation. We're just lucky this isn't America."  
America. News was still coming in of the flying robots shooting people who violated the quarantine. Everyone in America was still shut inside. Conspiracies circulated online that the robots would be coming to Europe at some point, to enforce a 24/7 quarantine on everyone.  
"Economic collapse soon," Vasil said, rolling his eyes, "Now won't that be fun?"  
"Again," Diodato sighed, "There's nothing we can do about that."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ksenija from Hurricane was on a video call with her father, Knez. Knez was at a EBU meeting with 2019 Montenegrin entrants D-Mol and 2018 Montenegrin entrant Vanja Radovanović. He was at the meeting to discuss a possible return of Montenegro at Eurovision next year with the EBU officials, but that wasn't what Ksenija wanted to discuss. Things in Montenegro were certainly very strange. The only country in the world not to have been touched by the virus. Not yet, anyway. They hoped the giant wall they had built around the country would protect them. With the wall in place, their border with Italy was no more. Still, even though they were free from the virus, they weren't truly free. The wall cut the country off and isolated them from the international community, and citizens of Montenegro were under what was technically a quarantine. International travel was banned and people were being kept inside whenever possible. Their government were taking drastic measures to keep the virus out of the tiny nation.  
"Any update on what's happening?" Ksenija asked.  
"Still no cases here," Knez grinned.  
"That's true," Vanja said, "But we're locked off to the whole world now."  
"The infected world," Knez said, "Now we can't get infected."  
"We still need to import stuff, no?" Vanja said, "We've locked everyone out. How are we going to get things in? Call us again after a week, I'm telling you, they'll be tearing down that damn wall."  
"We definitely will not," Knez said, "Why would you even think that?"  
Duncan couldn't help but overhear, but what annoyed him most was the fact that the EBU was spending any time on Montenegro in the first place instead of reassuring the entrants in Rotterdam or clarifying anything about the 2020 contest.  
"Sorry, why are the EBU having a meeting about getting Montenegro back next year?" Duncan said, looking at the wall, "We're not even sure if this one is going to go ahead yet? We're a week away from the contest now and the EBU don't want to discuss that or the fact that one of the contestants this year has Coronavirus? Nothing? But they went to Montenegro?"  
"Oh," Knez said, overhearing Duncan, "They're not here. Of course not, we're not allowing anyone into the country right now. They're just on a videocall, like you are with us."  
"Ok, but why are they doing this at all?" Duncan said. Knez just shrugged.  
"Beats me," Knez said, "Say, how are you all doing in Rotterdam?"  
"Ha," Ksenija laughed, "We've had better days."  
Knez grinned.  
"Don't worry," he said, "When this is all over, when everything is back to normal, you and your friends can have a big Eurovision party here in Montenegro."  
Ksenija smiled. She sure hoped things would go back to normal. The sooner, the better.


	7. Chapter 7

"Embarrassing," Daði said as he looked down at his phone, "This is embarrassing."  
Tornike's clip of the contestants arguing as the news sank in about Benny's illness had gone viral.  
"Is this who we are?" Daði asked, "Is this how we behave? Is this how we react when told someone is ill?"  
"Hey," Tornike said, "Don't ask me, I just filmed it."  
"The EBU are trying to scrub the clip from the internet," Vasil said, "But every time it gets deleted, ten more reuploads appear in its place."  
The video was everywhere, all over Youtube and trending on Twitter as well under the hashtag #KemamaVirus. Eurovision fansites were happy to finally have something to report on since not much news was coming out of Rotterdam, and they all flooded the internet with articles about it. For the EBU, this wasn't good at all.

* * *

Jon Ola Sand found himself at a meeting once again. He looked at his computer screen. It was another online meeting, everyone too worried to show up face-to-face. The reason for the meeting, Tornike's clip circulating. The higher-ups in the EBU were having a meltdown over possibly being blamed for any entrant who got the virus.  
"This is our brand, our reputation at stake!" Christer said, as Jon just shut his laptop. Surely at a time like this, there were more important things than brands and reputations? He didn't even find himself being excited at all about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, an event he had dedicated so many years to. As much as he liked the contest, this year all he could do was dread it. Sure, he could hold the event anyway, but if it made the virus worse, if not holding the contest stopped just one person being infected, then that was the decision he would have to make. He could not do anything else and have a clear conscience.  
But as he would soon find out, he wasn't really the one making the decisions at the EBU.

* * *

The EBU officials came in the hotel the next day, wearing full hazmat suits. Things were bad before, but now they were about to get even worse. Now that word was spreading about one of the contestants having Coronavirus, they had come to do something about it. Starting with locking down everything even more.  
When the lockdown on the hotel was first announced, Daði Freyr, the Icelandic entrant, had been the one entrusted with the key.  
"Daði," one of the EBU officials said, "Do you still have the key?"  
"Yeah, it's here," Daði said as he brought the key out from his pocket.  
The EBU official snatched the key from Daði's hand.  
"This lockdown is going to be more serious from now on," the official replied, "None of you can have a key now."  
Daði didn't say anything, he was too shocked to even respond to that. They took away his key, their only way out of the building. He couldn't believe they actually just did that.  
"But... that's not safe?" Vasil said, "What if we need to get out?"  
The official didn't respond, and instead looked around the room at all the other entrants.  
"Ok, where is he?" the official said.  
"Where is who?" Vasil asked.  
"Benny. Obviously. Where is he?"  
"Upstairs, why-" but before Vasil could even finish his answer, the group of people in hazmat suits rushed up the stairs. Daði just hoped they were actually here to help, but seeing as the first thing they did was take away his key to make sure they couldn't leave, he wasn't hopeful. Daði ran up after them, he would make sure they wouldn't do anything bad.


	8. Chapter 8

The EBU officials ran up the stairs, as Daði and Vasil ran after them. This didn't look good at all. First the key, their only way out, was taken, now they wanted Benny for something?  
"You can't do this," Vasil said as he ran after them, "Give that key back to Daði right now! We need that key!"  
"He's right, this can't be allowed," Daði said, "There must be some rule against this, right? Come on, let's not bother Benny, he's not feeling too good at the moment."  
"It's the virus," the official said, trying to open the door to Benny's room but it was locked.  
"We know," Daði said, "Now leave him alone."  
"What's going on out there?" came a voice. Benny was awake.  
"Just... stay in there Benny," Daði said, "Don't let them in, ok? Keep that door locked."  
"Um, alright," Benny said, "I'm going back to bed."  
The EBU official wasn't happy with that. Daði sensed that this situation might become serious very soon.  
"How dare you, unlock this door right now!" the official said.  
"Don't listen to him Benny," Daði said, "Keep that door locked and go back to bed."  
"Why do you need Benny anyway? I don't get it," Vasil said.  
"Basically, now we have a confirmed infection, he has to be removed from the hotel," the official said, still trying to open the door.  
"Removed to where?" Vasil asked.  
The official said nothing and continued trying to open the door.  
"Stop ignoring me," Vasil said, "Removed to where?"  
"Just outside, it doesn't matter where. We've been told to remove him from the hotel, that's all."  
"What?" Daði said, "And where will he go? You can't do that!"  
"D-don't throw me out," Benny's voice came from the room, "Why would you do that?"  
"They're not going to do that because we're not going to let them do that," Daði said.  
"That's right! Now you guys in the hazmats need to get the hell out of here!" Vasil shouted.  
At that moment, Diodato ran up the stairs and started yelling too.  
"This is ridiculous!" he yelled, "Get out of here right now before we call the police!"  
The official just laughed at that. The police hadn't been responding to any calls in Rotterdam for quite some time. The virus really had shut down everything.  
"We've also been told to remove you, Diodato," the official said, "It's believed you are the source of the virus."  
Diodato didn't really know how to process that. How could they think it was him, when he had no signs of the virus?  
"What? Why?" Diodato yelled, "Because I'm Italian? Do you want to be charged with discrimination as well as kidnapping? This is unacceptable! Get out of here! How dare you!"  
"I suggest you guys leave right now," Vasil said.  
At that moment, another official ran up the stairs. And that's when they saw him in the corner. Someone they hadn't seen until now. It was Tornike, and he was holding his phone out at them. Daði grinned. Of course Tornike had been recording the whole thing, just like he had recorded the drama before. The officials looked uneasy as soon as they noticed they were being recorded.  
"Hello, the livestream has a lot of viewers right now," Tornike said, "I hope you realise how bad this makes you look."  
The officials shifted in their place but didn't say anything.  
"You must realise this is illegal, no?" Tornike continued, "You have a duty of care to all of us, and this is not care. You would abandon him out there?"  
Still, the officials remained silent.  
"No answer?" Tornike said, "Go on, admit it to all the people watching."  
The two officials looked at each other and ran down the stairs, running of the hotel. But not before locking the door. They all just stood there in silence for a few moments.  
"That... that was nuts," Vasil said.  
"Ok," Diodato said, "We really need to make a complaint to the EBU."  
The others agreed.

* * *

  
Jon Ola Sand slammed the papers onto the desk and glared at the officials in front of him, who were all wearing hazmat suits. Tornike's livestream had gone viral and it did not make the EBU look good at all. It was yet another scandal in a contest that hadn't even happened yet.  
"And who authorized this?" he yelled, as the officials said nothing.  
Jon got up from his seat and walked over to one of the officials. The official was wearing so much protective clothing, that he could barely see the person underneath. The official backed away as Jon got close to him.  
"Is there a person beneath all that?" Jon said, "Beneath that suit, is there a person in there? If so, how could you?"  
Silence. The EBU officials sure were good at saying nothing.  
"How could you even think to abandon one of our contestants? Again, who authorized this?"  
There was silence once again. Jon looked around the room at the officials, covered in protection.  
"I notice I wasn't offered any protective clothing by the EBU," Jon said, "Am I even in charge here?"  
For once, the officials had an answer.  
"No."

* * *

Meanwhile, the entrants were sitting in the hotel, trying to process what had just happened. This contest was quickly becoming a disaster for everyone involved.  
"Ok but they were trying to protect us, were they not?" Efendi said, "It might not have been the right method, but they were trying to stop us from getting the virus."  
Daði sighed.  
"Let's talk about this realistically," Daði said, "If Benny has it, then we've all been exposed to the virus at some level. There's no point kicking him out. It wouldn't change anything."  
"Oh no, but I don't want coronavirus," Efendi said, looking worried.  
"They say a lot of it is mild," Daði said, "Benny seems fine with it. Even if not, there's no use worrying about it. If we have it, we have it already. Nothing we can do about that."  
"Serious question," Vasil said, "We don't even know for sure that he has the virus. He hasn't been tested. He could be ill with something else."  
"Possible," Daði said, "But unlikely."  
"But there's a chance," Vasil said.  
"A very very low chance," Daði said, "Let's just accept that we have all been exposed to the virus. We'll be fine. As long as we stick together... as long as we help each other, we'll be fine."  
Arilena leaned back in her chair.  
"I have to be honest," Arilena said, "I don't know about you guys but I really regret getting on that plane to Rotterdam."  
A lot of the entrants agreed with her. They had only come here to perform in a music competition. She hadn't signed up for this. None of them had.


	9. Chapter 9

Another EBU meeting. Jon Ola Sand was getting sick of this. This time it was just him, Christer, and a few faces on computer screens. There was some bad news. The Dutch government had been in contact again, and they were concerned about the contest.  
"We're really going to have to look at whether this contest can go ahead or not," Christer said, "And that video is still circulating."  
Jon sighed. The EBU had been trying to get rid of Tornike's videos, but they were still everywhere, still being reuploaded.  
"I don't know about the videos," Jon said, "But Eurovision is going ahead. They said we could do it without an audience."  
"It's getting worse every day," Christer said, "What they said yesterday might not apply to today. Look, I'll do everything in my power to make sure this contest goes over smoothly. But..."  
Christer trailed off.   
"But what?"  
"But we might have to cancel Eurovision this year."  
Jon was shocked. Surely after all this hard work, they couldn't cancel it? And what about the entrants? They were all already here, cancelling the event wouldn't make it any easier for them. It would just mean they had come all this way for no reason.

* * *

"Hey... hey Daði," Benny said from behind the door, "Thanks for helping me back there."  
"Oh, it was nothing," Daði said, "We can't beat this virus if we don't help each other. I won't let them kick anyone out of the hotel, ok?"  
Benny sounded like he was doing a lot better today. That was good news at least.  
"Alright," Benny said, "Did Diodato send the complaint to the EBU yet?"  
"Oh he did," Daði said. He wasn't sure if anything would be done about the complaint, but he knew that Tornike's livestream had been viewed by millions. And that meant they couldn't just ignore it. He was glad Tornike had thought to take the video, it meant the whole world could see how they were being treated.  
As Daði walked back down the stairs, he thought about how all of this all started. At first it had started as a strange news story about a new virus in China. A few months later it had arrived to Europe, starting in Italy. There were people who tried to calm everyone down. Saying it was just in China. Just in Italy. And it was. Until it wasn't. No one had expected it to come to them, until it did. Now it was here. Now it was everywhere.  
Daði walked back into the room where the other entrants were sitting.  
"It's my fault they went after Benny in the first place," Tornike said, "Because I took that video of everyone shouting and saying he had coronavirus."  
"But, the second video you took stopped them from throwing him out of the hotel," Vasil said, "So you did a good thing. Plus, with those videos going viral, no one can ignore us. Everyone knows we are stuck in the hotel now."  
"Plus," Damir grinned, "At least everyone is talking about us."  
"Right," Vasil said, "And now I'm seeing if we can do something about losing the key."  
Vasil had sent a number of tweets earlier in the day asking if it was legal for the EBU to take away their only key from them. The answer from his followers was a resounding now, and they were now giving him advice on what to do next.  
"I mean," Vasil continued, "We could use the windows I guess? But I'd really rather not."

* * *

Jon Ola Sand had to hold back tears as he held the paper in his hands. It was the document that confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. The Dutch government had told Jon Ola Sand that the 2020 contest could not go ahead. Every day the pandemic was getting worse, and they would not permit it to be held, even without an audience. He was shocked by the news, it had been held every year since 1956, but now, it was going to be cancelled. Not just postponed, but completely cancelled.  
That was it. It was over. Everything, all the hard work of the entrants, the problems they were going through now in the hotel quarantine... it had all been for nothing.


	10. Chapter 10

It was only a week into the quarantine but the atmosphere in the hotel was tense. Of course, if you have so many people in the same space, eventually there would be tension and problems. It didn't help that Arilena was still looking up stories about the virus, and about the quarantine robots in America, and scaring everyone with them.  
Donald Trump, after a few days of not making any public statements, was now back and threatening Italy with war once again, so that was yet another thing they had to worry about on top of the global pandemic and hotel quarantine. And the number of Coronavirus cases, despite the harsh measures of countries going on full lockdown, was rising. This was not the friendly atmosphere of previous competitions. This was like holding a song contest in the middle of a battlefield. At least the first semi-final was tomorrow. The entrants were happy knowing that it hadn't all been for nothing. That they would get to showcase their songs on the big stage. They didn't know the news yet.  
It was only a couple of minutes later when Diodato received a message on his phone.  
"Oh," he said, "It's the EBU."  
"They responded to your complaint?" Gjon asked.  
"No," Diodato said, "It's..."  
Diodato nearly dropped his phone when he read the news.  
"Oh no," Vasil said, "What the hell is it now?"  
"Eurovision is cancelled," Diodato said.  
 _'It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.'_  
The rumours had been circulating on social media all day, but now it was official. There would be no Eurovision Song Contest this year. That was it.  
"So we really came here for nothing?" Vasil said, "Wow, thanks EBU."  
"Ok," Arilena said, "But we're all still here, so what about us? Are the EBU going to be sending us home to our own countries now?"  
"The EBU wanted to throw someone out of the hotel for having the virus," Senhit said, "I don't think they care about us all that much."  
"But they still have a duty of care, no?" Tornike said, "They have to protect us and they have to send us home."  
"Well there's a problem, isn't there?" Gjon said, "They have a 'duty of care' to protect Eurovision Song Contest participants, which we aren't anymore. Now we are just the Eurovision that never was."  
"They can't... they can't use that as an excuse," Tornike said, looking worried, "They just can't. They have to do something!"

* * *

Diodato went to the Facebook page of the EBU, where they also had the same announcement posted. He just wanted to see what the responses were, and if anyone knew what was going to happen to them now.  
  
 _'So what are you doing about the ESC entrants?? They are in Rotterdam right now?'_  
 _'Why would you let them travel there and then cancel? Stupid decision... should have cancelled it back in April #Eurovision2020'_  
 _'so are the contestants going home now or what????'_  
 _'Why don't you post an announcement about the hotel videos? Explain yourselves! #KemamaVirus'_  
  
Diodato smiled. At least the fans of the contest cared about them. Still, he couldn't find any information on how the EBU planned to help them now that there wouldn't be a contest. He didn't think they even knew what to do. They certainly didn't know what to do back when all this started.  
"More information from them," Vasil said, also looking down at his phone, "All our songs won't be eligible to compete at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Only new songs at next year's contest. Damn."  
"That kinda sucks," Diodato said, "But I'm more concerned with how we're going to get home. If the EBU have even thought about that at all."  
Diodato continued scrolling through the posts. The silence was only broken by Hurricane performing their song rather loudly in another room.  
"Can someone go and tell them that Eurovision is cancelled already?" Vasil said.  
"It was never going to happen, was it?" Jeangu said, "The situation was getting too bad. Maybe we were all just in denial. We all hoped it would go ahead, even though we could see everything getting worse."  
"Right," Daði said, "But don't worry about it. We all thought the contest would happen, despite everything. It isn't going to. Stuff happens. Right now we have more important things to worry about."


	11. Chapter 11

_~Hasta la vista, baby, imam novi plan, imam-imam novi plan_   
_Hasta la vista, baby, jasno kao dan, jasno-jasno kao dan~_

Hurricane had rehearsed every day since they had arrived in the hotel. All the hard work they had put into this contest, it had all been for nothing. They would never perform 'Hasta la Vista' on the big Eurovision stage like they had wanted. Vasil sighed as he knocked on the door. It was time to let them know the bad news.  
"Girls, show's over," Vasil said, as the music stopped.  
"What?" Sanja said, "Why?"  
"Eurovision 2020 just got cancelled," Vasil explained, "It's over. Because of the coronavirus."   
"Corona... but... they said it was going to happen anyway," Sanja said, "They said..."  
"I don't know what to tell you," Vasil said, "They changed their minds. It's been cancelled."  
"No way!" Ksenija said, "Coronavirus is nothing! We can beat this!"  
"Yeah! We'll kick those robots too!" Ivana said.  
Vasil smiled at that. But he also knew that there was no beating this thing. There couldn't be. An invisible, unseen enemy that spread when you had contact with other people, with no sign of stopping. Whole countries had become ghost towns thanks to this virus, how could Eurovision go ahead in those conditions?  
"It's over, finished," Vasil said, "I'm sorry. Jon Ola Sand made the announcement this morning."  
Hurricane, who usually looked so happy, seemed very sad to hear this news.  
"But... we..." Sanja didn't know what to say.  
"I know, I'm sorry too," Vasil said, "But this virus mess is getting worse every day. I'm not sure there was another way. I wish there was... but Daði is right, it is what it is. We'll just have to accept it I guess, even if we don't want to."

* * *

As he was walking back to the area with the other entrants, Vasil looked down at his phone to see a new announcement. Another news report from America. Donald Trump was now demanding that the rest of the world have quarantine enforcement robots as well. Rumours were circulating that they had been shipped to Europe already, and that it would soon be made official by governments all over the world.  
Vasil sat back down on the couch to see the other entrants gathered around the television. Donald Trump would be making a statement soon. A televised message to the world. It sounded very serious.  
"This isn't going to be good, is it?" Ulrikke said.  
Vasil had an idea about what was going to be said. It seemed Arilena did too, since she had been reading those stories online again.  
"It's the robots," she said, "They're coming here. Everyone's saying it."  
"That's just fake news," Tornike said, "It has to be. No country in Europe would want that. We wouldn't allow it."  
At that moment, the broadcast started and the entrants fell silent. Donald Trump stepped out onto the podium. He started by congratulating America on their response to the coronavirus crisis. Then he looked directly at the camera.  
"The robots here in America, the best robots in the world. Soon they will be with you, in all your countries, all over the world. Keeping you inside. So stay inside. I repeat, do not come outside."  
The entrants looked at each other in terror. They had heard the horror stories from America. Everyone had. Everyone knew what those robots could do.  
Donald Trump continued to list more draconian laws, including the suspension of all US elections, and then blamed Italy and China for the crisis.  
"And remember," Trump said, "Stay inside. Or we'll make you."  
The broadcast then faded to black. Stunned silence fell across the room. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. This Eurovision Song Contest was quickly becoming a nightmare.  
"This can't be real..." Elisa said, "This can't be happening."  
"The EBU were supposed to keep us safe," Arilena said, "How is this helping us? They've scrapped the contest but they've abandoned us!"  
The others found themselves agreeing with her. Cancelling the contest didn't change anything for the entrants. This was far from over. It had only just begun.


	12. Chapter 12

It was the seventh day of quarantine and the entrants still had no news of when they were going to be returning home. Looking at how badly some of their countries were being hit by the virus, some of them didn't want to. And on top of that, now America were trying to push their quarantine enforcement robots on Europe and the rest of the world. That was exactly what they didn't need, yet more problems on top of everything else. But there was one positive. No robots had been seen. It had been two days since the Trump announcement and there were still no robots to be seen in any European country. The entrants would look out the hotel windows often, and still, nothing. Maybe the governments of the world had said no? Maybe they had stood up to America?  
"I mean, no robots are here yet, right?" Damir said, "Maybe they're not coming. America can't just force us to take those robots."  
"Maybe," Arilena said, "But I still don't think this is going to end well. This is just the calm before the storm."  
"We just need the EBU to get us home already," Vasil said, "That's all we need."  
"Why?" Arilena asked, "It's bad in every country. And if those robots come, then it'll just get even worse. Honestly Vasil, this is the safest place for us right now."  
Vasil didn't know what to say to that. But she had a point.  
  


* * *

  
Meanwhile, Daði walked over to where Victoria and Lithuanian band the Roop were sitting. It seemed they were looking at some sort of online voting. Daði smiled, even if there wasn't going to be a contest this year, Eurovision fans would always find a way.  
"We won," Mantas said, "Lithuania won! Victoria, you came second!"  
"Sweet!" Victoria beamed, "Hey, and here's Daði! You came third! And Switzerland is fourth! Where's Gjon?"  
Third place. That result made Daði very happy, even though technically it didn't matter.   
"Well, we do have bigger things going on right now but..." Daði couldn't help but smile, "Third place? That's awesome."  
"It really is," Victoria said, "All the Eurovision fans all over the world have come together to make this."  
The results were handed out to all the contestants. Some had done well, others... not so well, but still, everyone had tried really hard this year and there wasn't anyone who had got zero points, everyone got some points, so that was something at least. All the Eurovision entrants were here, apart from two. Benny, who was still in his room, and...  
"Where's Jeangu?" Vincent asked, "He did really well, he'll want to see these results for sure!"  
At that moment Jeangu rushed into the room.  
"Jeangu!" Victoria said, "Check out these-"  
But then she saw that Jeangu looked really worried about something. Oh no. Something bad had happened. Again. That was all they seemed to receive now, bad news. The online Eurovision results had been a nice break from it, but here they were again. Back to reality. Back in the quarantine.  
"The agreement is through. Everyone signed it with Trump this morning. Virtually, of course. All the countries have said yes to America's robots, except for one..." Jeangu said, trailing off.  
"Except who?" Damir pushed him to finish the sentence.  
"Italy. Italy have said no," Jeangu said, "They said no to the robots."  
Diodato smiled. Even when facing a huge crisis, Italy stood strong. Italy had been the only country to stand against America's robots.  
"Of course we wouldn't accept it," Diodato said.  
Suddenly, they heard a wooshing noise outside. Looking out of the window, there they were. Here already. Flying in the sky, floating close down to the ground. Those robots they had seen so many times in news reports about America. Here they were. They were here. If they thought things were bad before, they were about to get a whole lot worse.


	13. Chapter 13

This couldn't be happening. But it was. The entrants continued to look out of the window as more robots flew around the deserted city. As the other entrants started shouting and panicking, Daði stood on a chair and appealed for calm.  
"This contest isn't important anymore," he said, "What is important is that we take care of each other, and that we all return home safely."  
"Plus," Vasil added, "The robots can't get us while we're all in here. As long as we stay inside the hotel, those robots can't do anything."  
"For how long, Vasil?" Gjon asked, "How long do we have to stay here?"  
Vasil didn't have an answer for that. No one knew. No one knew how long this would go on for, no one knew when this would all be over. If it would be over.  
  


* * *

  
It was later that night. They should have been in bed at this point, but most of them found that they couldn't sleep. Not with what was happening. Plus, when it went quiet, you could hear the buzzing of the robots outside. And no one wanted to hear that.  
They kept talking to each other, at least that hid the noise of the robots outside. It wasn't like they could just put the TV on either, the constant news from America was getting worse by the day. Trump was boasting about how well his robots were working and ranting about Italy not accepting them. Still, Italy stood strong. They told America that they would not accept those robots under any conditions. Trump clearly wasn't used to being told no. But Italy kept telling him no.  
  


* * *

  
Meanwhile, Diodato was in a video call with Francesco Gabbani. Francesco was in a laboratory in Italy, and he had great news to share with everyone. It was late, but Francesco just had to share this incredible news. Diodato couldn't believe it, but Francesco said that his lab had successfully created a vaccine to defeat coronavirus once and for all. The connection wasn't great inside the lab, so Francesco walked outside to get a better connection. Seeing the empty streets of Italy behind him felt strange, but Francesco had great news.  
"So you believe you actually have a vaccine?" Diodato asked.  
"Yup, and not just believe, we know. It works, we've tested it," Francesco said, "It just needs a few more trials and then we'll mass-produce it and get rid of that damn virus for good."  
Diodato didn't even know what to say, so he just laughed.  
"Isn't that great?" Francesco beamed, "We did it! We actually did it!"  
Others had begun gathering around Diodato once they had heard of news of a possible vaccine.  
"This can't be real? Is this real?" Arilena smiled, and then realised that it was the first time she'd smiled since the quarantine was imposed. This had to be real, right? It would be a pretty sick joke to play on someone otherwise.  
"It's real," Francesco said.  
"We did it, coronavirus is going away," Diodato said, "And so are we. We'll all go home after this, and, with the virus gone, those American robots will be getting kicked out of here too!"  
The entrants hadn't felt this happy in a long time. Finally, humanity had won. Coronavirus would be finished once this vaccine went out. That would be it. It would all be over. Everyone could return to their own countries. Maybe the contest could even go ahead at a later date? Suddenly, they heard the sound of aeroplanes above Francesco.  
"Wha... what is that?" Francesco said as the entire area was cast in darkness.  
"Francesco?" Diodato said, "Your video is going out, I think? I can't really see you too well now."  
"No, it's here," Francesco said, "It's not you. It's dark, there's something over me, it's..."  
He trailed off and pointed his phone to the sky so that the Eurovision entrants in the hotel could see it. There were so many planes that it was if there was a giant black cloud overheard. That was when they heard a loud crash on Francesco's side of the call. The call disconnected.  
"Francesco?" Diodato yelled, "Francesco?"  
Diodato just looked down at his phone for a few minutes, waiting for Francesco to reconnect, but he didn't. At that moment, Damir ran into the room, yelling.  
"Guys, America just nuked Italy," Damir said, "Th-they... they've dropped a nuke on Italy. It's all over the news! Trump ordered it."  
Diodato screamed and fell to the floor.  
"W-wait... what about the vaccine?" Arilena asked.  
Diodato just continued staring at the floor and didn't say anything. He had never known it was possible to go from being so happy to this miserable. They had did it, they had actually did it. A vaccine for that horrible virus. And America had just nuked it from existence.


	14. Chapter 14

The videocall between Francesco and Diodato had been saved, the whole thing had been saved as a recording on Diodato's phone. Diodato had to get this out to the world. He owed that to Francesco. To show the world what had happened. That Donald Trump had just nuked the world's only hope of a vaccine. That they were so close, and now all their progress had been undone.  
Diodato posted it onto Youtube, and Instagram, and Twitter, and Facebook... and any site that would accept videos really. He spent all day uploading and spreading the video across as many different platforms as possible, it was the least he could do. It wasn't long before it started hitting major news organisations. It went viral across the world. America were receiving international condemnation. But that wasn't going to stop them.  
"America just nuked China as well," Damir said, "This really is the start of World War Three, isn't it?"  
Diodato didn't respond and just continued to post links to the video everywhere. A few days ago a nuclear war would have sounded insane, but now... now it was really happening. Arilena grabbed the TV remote. First Italy, now China? This couldn't be happening. It had been days since they had watched the news, but she had to know what was going on now. She didn't really want to, but she had to see it. It was all happening so fast, one problem only lead to another. She had to see what they were saying about it. She flicked the TV on. Donald Trump stood there, in the middle of a speech.  
"Whatever," Donald said, "Italy claimed to have a vaccine, and there's a fake video of them claiming to have it. So what? Where's the proof? They're liars. They lie. We are justified in attacking them. And we are going to have a vaccine too, and it will be bigger, and better!"  
"You can't just chuck nuclear weapons at other countries," one of the reporters there said, "How can you justify that?"  
"Whatever," Donald shrugged, "They were just small nukes. Tiny, tiny nukes. If they keep resisting us, we have bigger ones waiting for them."  
"But even a 'small nuke' can do big damage," the reporter said, before realising he was surrounded by White House security guards. At that moment the security guards dragged out the reporter who had dared to ask that question.  
"That's right," Donald said, "Get him out of here."  
Suddenly, one of the officials walked up to Donald. He said something, and that's when Trump stopped smiling.  
"Oh," Donald said, "Americans... China has..."  
The recording cut out at that moment. They heard a quiet crashing noise outside. When they looked out of the window, they were shocked at what they saw. All the robots had fallen to the ground.  
Damir continued scrolling through the news. Videos were coming through of a nuclear attack on America. Of course. Had America forgotten that China was a nuclear power as well? That they wouldn't just sit there while America chucked bombs at them?  
The entrants looked out of the window. The robots littered the floor. It looked like they were being sent some sort of signal from America, and without it, they couldn't work anymore. If they wanted to, they could go outside again. It looked like there were already a few people out, kicking those robots around.  
"I really want to go out and kick those robots," Sanja grinned.  
"We still don't have the key to leave, the EBU has it," Daði began, but Sanja and the rest of Hurricane were already there kicking the front door. Soon, the door came off its hinges and Hurricane ran out to kick some deactivated robots.  
"Well," Daði said, "That's one way to do it, I guess."  
Diodato was still spreading his video. Even if it was true about China nuking America, he still needed to get this news out to the world. Suddenly, a videocall came through on his phone. He couldn't believe who it was.  
"Francesco!" Diodato yelled.  
"Yup, still here," Francesco said, standing in front of the destroyed lab, "Looks like they targeted the lab specifically. Tons of our work is ruined but we're going to see what we can get out of it."  
"It was a nuclear weapon they used," Diodato said, "You should get out of there."  
"I know," Francesco said, "But I won't. We owe it to the world to finish this vaccine and get it out to people."  
"He's alright?" Arilena said, as the other entrants gathered around the video.  
"That's right," Francesco said, "You can't keep me down."  
"Only you would survive getting hit by a damn nuke," Diodato grinned, "Like a cockroach, Francesco."  
Francesco had to laugh at that.  
"They hit the lab," Francesco said, "They weren't aiming at me!"  
"Looks like they finally got a taste of their own medicine," Vasil said.  
"That's not really fair," Victoria said, "It wasn't the American people's fault. But they got hit anyway."  
"That's a debate for another day," Francesco said, "Look, I'm just here to let Diodato know that I'm fine and that we're going to continue our work here. Even when we are stomped down, we always get back up again. We are Italians, after all."  
That was true. Even after everything, Italy stood strong. Ready to help the world, even after they had been abandoned by the world. Even after they had been attacked. Even that couldn't keep them down. They were still here, willing to help people. That was one of the things Diodato loved so much about his home country.  
"Yeah yeah," Diodato grinned, "Just hurry up with that vaccine already, we need it."  
Francesco just laughed.  
"We're going as fast as we can," Francesco said before pointing the camera to the destroyed lab behind him, "We've just had a bit of a setback, ok? Call you again soon."  
Finally, hope had returned. If Francesco could actually get anything useful from the destroyed lab was another matter, but right now, they had hope that everything would actually be alright. They only needed two things right now, firstly for the vaccine to be finished, and secondly, for America to stop dropping nukes on other countries. Whether they would actually get either was another matter entirely.


	15. Chapter 15

Hurricane were the only ones who had gone out of the hotel since the news had come in. Sanja thought it was odd that none of the others were out with them, didn't they want to come out and feel the sunlight properly for the first time in days? Still, maybe they were just so used to staying inside all the time now. It did feel rather strange, being out here. Feeling that everything might work out alright. Might. Still, the situation looked bad. And what would the world even look like without America in it? Of course, America was still there, but being hit by that amount of nuclear weapons... they wouldn't be a superpower anymore after this. There was just no way.  
Still, there was nothing Hurricane could do about that. There was only one thing they could do to make themselves feel better, to make them feel a bit more in control of the situation. The Hurricane girls kicked some of the robots that were on the floor around the street. Ivana even picked one up and booted it as if it was a football. It sure felt good, kicing those robots.  
"It's a good thing this will all be over soon, anyway," Ksenija said, "Montenegro were going to have to make a pretty big decision. Keep the borders closed and keep the virus out, or get more supplies in and risk getting the virus... but now... well, we don't have to make that choice, it'll be a lot easier..."  
Sanja kicked the shield down from another robot.  
"Sorry, Ksenija, you were saying something?" she said as she kicked a button off one of the fallen drones.  
"I just... nevermind," Ksenija sighed. When Sanja was concentrating on something, it was difficult to get through to her. Oh well, Hurricane had said they would kick some robots and that was what they were doing. Still, it was easy now, now that they were harmless. Or so they thought.  
  


* * *

  
Meanwhile, back inside the hotel, Damir was scrolling through the news on his phone.  
"Wow, look at this," Damir said, "They're all going outside in England now that the robots are down."  
Damir showed them the videos of everyone in the streets of London, celebrating. The UK had been the first country in the Europe to accept the robots from America. Not that the British people wanted it.  
"It's a livestream," Damir said, "The weather looks awful there, but they seem to be having a good time anyway."  
"Uh, did they forget about the virus?" Gjon said, "That's the whole reason everyone is inside, not the robots."  
"Now now," Diodato said, "We're going to fix that for you, so don't you worry about it. Italy is here to save the day."  
Damir smiled at that, but suddenly, he looked really shocked.  
"Hurricane need to get back in here right now," Damir said.  
"Why? What's wrong?" Diodato asked.  
"The robots in England, they're exploding!" Damir said.  
The entrants gathered around to see a livestream of the robots exploding in the British capital. That would likely be happening in Rotterdam soon as well. And Hurricane were still out there with them.  
"Hurricane!" Vasil yelled, tapping on the glass of the window, "Hurricane! Girls! Get back in here!"  
But the three girls didn't hear them, they just continued kicking robots in the distance.  
"It's no good, they can't hear us," Damir said, "I'll... I'll go and get them."  
"Damir, you can't be serious," Victoria said, "You can't-"  
But he had already ran out the front door of the hotel. He didn't want to go, but he felt he had to. He wouldn't know how to bear it if he just sat there and did nothing. It was clear the other entrants didn't want to go either, so he might as well get this over with instead of delaying it and risking being too late.  
He tried to avoid standing on any of the robots as he ran across the street. It felt like he was running across a minefield. Those things could go off at any moment. They had already gone off in the UK. He just hoped that they still had some time.  
"Hurricane!" Damir yelled as the three girls turned to look at him.  
"Damir?" Sanja said, "What do you-"  
"I don't have time to explain, we need to go back in the hotel right now! Please," Damir said.  
"But-" Sanja began.  
"We need to go back inside the hotel right now!" Damir yelled, "Quickly!"  
Sanja felt like questioning him, but the serious look on Damir's face told her all she needed to know. Something was wrong. They ran after him and followed the Croatian back into the hotel. Sanja really didn't want to go back into the hotel after being forced to spend so long in here, but something was definitely wrong.  
"Hurricane!" Vasil said as they walked back in, "You guys ok?"  
"Yeah, we're fine," Ivana said, "What's going on?"  
Damir was just about to explain. That's when the explosion shook the hotel. There it was. The robots were now exploding in the Netherlands as well. Then another explosion. And another. The hotel shook again but somehow stood strong. And then, silence.  
"What the hell was that?" Sanja yelled as she turned to look out of the window. When she saw it, she wished she hadn't. Rubble lay everywhere in the streets, the ground was scorched, and there were small fires and burnt twisted pieces of robots everywhere. Rotterdam was in ruins.  
"It's the robots," Damir said, "They're exploding. All over the world."


	16. Chapter 16

The entrants crowded around the TV to get a good look at what had happened. It wasn't exactly following social distancing, but then they had bigger problems now. Looking at the TV, it became even more clear what had happened. These were the images that shocked the world. Of robots exploding in the streets of nearly every country worldwide. Some of the videos showed destroyed buildings, they sure were lucky that the hotel they were in was as strong as it was.  
The media explained that America had put a failsafe into the robots. If the signal from America were to ever stop reaching the robots, they would explode after a short while. It was to prevent anyone from stopping the robots from working.  
"Isn't that, uh, stupid?" Diodato said, "Now they'll never work again. They blew up."  
"It doesn't matter," Victoria said, turning to look out of the window, "America got what they wanted. Look at how they ruined everything."  
America had already been kicked out of the United Nations shortly after the attacks on Italy and China. When China hit them back, there were a lot of people who felt that it was deserved, even though the people getting hit were innocent civilians too. When the robots exploded, those feelings only intensified. That America were to blame, that America had made a serious crisis, the pandemic, far worse than it ever had to be. The consensus online was the somehow, they got what they deserved. Even though it didn't fix anything.  
"At least World War Three won't be happening anytime soon," Vasil said, "America got hit with 57 nukes. 57! What can they do now? Nothing!"  
57 nuclear strikes on America, with possibly more to come. Every major American city had been hit. There was no way America could recover from this. No one even knew that China had that many nukes in the first place. No one knew what things were like in America right now, either.  
"Is there even any news from America?" Diodato said, "What's happening over there? Those people living there didn't cause this, Trump did."  
Vasil flicked through the channels, but none of them had anything about what the situation was like in America right now. Look through his phone, he couldn't see anything either. So far, there weren't any videos coming out from America. Not yet, anyway. Vasil figured the attacks had probably taken down their internet. Or electricity. Maybe both. Not to mention, it wasn't just the nuclear weapons hitting them, but the robots exploding too. And with America taken out, the world situation became much more unclear, but with America attacking the world, perhaps it was for the best.  
"Well that's that sorted," Arilena said, "Diodato! Where's that vaccine already?"  
"W-we can't rush these things," Diodato said.  
"Besides, nothing is sorted," Damir said, "Look at this mess. We do need that vaccine but that will only be the start. Once the virus is gone, it's going to take a serious effort to fix the world after this."  
"That's true," Daði said, "But we are going to fix this. Look throughout history. Every time something bad has happened, we've always got back up again. This time will be no different."  
  


* * *

  
When Benny woke up that day, he felt a hell of a lot better. Actually, he'd been feeling better for a couple of days now, although he still didn't want to go down to the other entrants. Just in case they didn't want him there. Just in case he still was actually carrying the virus. Hurricane would always bring stuff to his room anyway. It was quite nice having room service. It was quite nice not having to do anything for a change, either.  
"Oh hey Hurricane," Benny said as he heard footsteps outside, "Thanks."  
"Heya, you feeling better, Benny?" Sanja asked, "You sound a lot better lately."  
"Yeah," Benny said, "I'd say the virus is gone but who knows."  
"Soon it won't matter," Sanja said, "Italy is making the vaccine for everyone. I said we were going to kick corona, didn't I? Well now we're actually going to do it!"  
"Nice!" Benny smiled, finally, some good news in the middle of all this.  
"Sure is," Sanja replied, "Well your stuff is outside as always."  
"Thanks girls. Anything else going on?" Benny asked, "I haven't been looking at the news lately."  
"Oh, so..." Sanja said, considering if she should tell Benny or not, she had no idea how much he knew about what was going on, "There's been a nuclear attack. By America, on Italy and China. China threw a ton of nukes back at America and now there isn't any news coming out from America at all."  
Benny regretted asking.  
"B-but, it's over now," Sanja said, "Try not to worry about it. There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Looking at it doesn't help anything."  
As he heard Hurricane walk away, Benny looked down at his phone and searched for coronavirus news for the first time in days. But Sanja was right. This was happening whether he looked at it or not. And there wasn't anything any of them could do about it.


	17. Chapter 17

Finally, the phone rang. Diodato picked it up. He felt like he had been waiting for this call all day.  
"Dio?" that was Francesco's voice.  
"Francesco!"  
"Put me on loudspeaker," Francesco said, "Are the others with you?"  
"You know they are, no one has been going outside."  
"Good, they'll want to hear this."  
The progress was looking good on the vaccines, even after the attack. The Italian government was working tirelessly to salvage everything from the lab, and it looked like they were almost there. Of course, a vaccine wouldn't fix everything that had happened, but without the virus around they could begin to pick up the pieces. Francesco said it would only be a few days before the vaccine was going to be distributed. That was it, they would finally be getting rid of the virus that had caused so many problems.  
"Finally!" Arilena said, "Yes! We did it!"  
"Uh, you didn't do anything," Vasil grinned.  
"That's not the point, Vasil!" Arilena said, "This virus is going down!"  
  


* * *

  
Later that day, the entrants were still hanging around the hotel, as always. Some of them were watching a news report on Italy's vaccine progress. That was when Vasil ran into the room.  
"Guys! It's the EBU! They're going to be taking us home," Vasil said, "The EBU have said we're all going home!"  
"What?" Arilena said, "Seriously?"  
"Seriously," Vasil said, "It's just come out now."  
Jon Ola Sand put out a statement later that day. All the entrants were going to be returning to their home countries. With the vaccine now in sight, lockdowns around the world had started to be relaxed.  
  


* * *

  
The EBU came and got them later that day. They weren't too pleased with the front door of the hotel being off, but Hurricane just said that a robot exploding had done it. It wasn't like anyone needed to know they had kicked the door of the hotel down.   
Jon Ola Sand barely said anything as he lead them all onto a coach. Benny Cristo was slightly annoyed that he hadn't even been offered any sort of apology for the EBU officials trying to kick him out of the hotel, but mainly he was just happy to finally be leaving this place. As they travelled on the coach to the airport, a surreal atmosphere set in. After all this time, they would finally be seperating. Maybe this would even be the last time some of them saw each other, since the contest was cancelled and the future of next year's event was uncertain.  
The ride took longer than expected, the nearest airport was still cleaning up damage caused by the exploding robots, but once they got there, it was a small glimpse of what life used to be like. There weren't as many people as usual in the airport, but there were just enough people to make it feel normal. Lockdown had been eased a little, and things were slowly going back to normal, even before the vaccine was out. Now that people knew it was coming, it was easier to relax. At least over virus related stuff.  
The entrants walked through the airport. Obviously, they were all going to different countries, so this was were they would be seperating.  
"Huh, I guess I'll be seeing you guys then," Tornike smiled.  
"Yeah, after everything," Vasil said, "We'll all finally be back home. This is so strange."  
"Wow, this feels really weird," Victoria said.  
"Sure does," Benny said, "I've been stuck in that room for what feels like forever."  
The entrants slowly got onto whichever plane they had been assigned to. Soon, everyone and their belongings were boarded, leaving only Jeangu, the Dutch entrant, and Jon Ola Sand, standing there on the tarmac, watching the planes fly off. Jeangu waved as they left even though he knew they probably couldn't see him.  
"Huh... I didn't notice you got onto the coach Jeangu. You didn't have to," Jon said, the longest sentence he'd said to any of the entrants all day.  
"Oh, you know, I just wanted to see them off," Jeangu said, "We've spent a lot of time together. Now it's time for me to go home too."  
  


* * *

It was only fitting that the vaccine started being distributed on the date that the Eurovision final was supposed to be held on. May 16th, 2020. Even with the virus gone, with the ruined state of the world and the economy, Eurovision was still cancelled. For this year, anyway, but the EBU promised that the contest would be back again in 2021. Right now, the contest was the last thing on their minds. They were just happy to be home once again.


	18. Chapter 18

**Saturday, May 16th, 2020**

It was the day the Eurovision final was supposed to be taking place. But of course, it had already been cancelled, and so that wouldn't happen. In place of the actual contest, the EBU had put on a show called 'Eurovision: Shine A Light,' which the 2020 entrants agreed to participate in virtually. Over a satellite link, the entrants, now back in their home countries, performed their songs and came together to perform past Eurovision winners and other notable Eurovision entries. It was an interesting take on Eurovision, and somehow worked quite well.  
With most of the world being on some sort of lockdown, even if it was relaxed a lot now, the contest that wasn't a contest had the most viewers it had ever had. Millions tuned in to watch the event. Still, it wasn't a contest, there was no competitive aspect and no voting. It was more of a showcase of what could have been. A showcase of the Eurovision 2020 entrants and their songs.  
Meanwhile, the vaccine distribution had started. The Italian government had made it free for everyone, so that there were no roadblocks to stopping this virus. Many people had already received their vaccine. Widespread celebrations broke out across the world. For the first time in a long time, people could get together again, have gatherings, throw parties. Finally, the era of coronavirus would soon be over.  
  


* * *

  
**May 2021**

Here they were again, in Rotterdam. Due to the cancellation of the 2020 contest, many countries had chosen the same artists again, not all of them, but most of them. It was only right, they had won the right to represent their countries in the contest but hadn't done so, because of the cancellation. For many countries, it just felt like the right thing to do to offer those people the opportunity to go again. To finally get to do what that virus had stopped them from doing last year.  
Tornike walked through the hotel. It felt weird being here again, in this hotel, with mostly the same people as last time. They hadn't seen each other in person for a year, but the entrants had been keeping in touch virtually. It was such a strange feeling, being in this building again. But things were different now. They could go outside any time they wanted. Rotterdam had cleaned itself up very quickly, not every city had, but the world was starting to look like the world they once knew again. Donald Trump had been arrested for the unauthorised nuclear strikes, but no one new had been elected in his place. Instead, the United Nations had been controlling America, making sure that nothing like this could ever happen again.  
"Tornike!" Victoria said, "Good to see you again."  
"Haha," Tornike said, "This will be better than the last time, I hope."  
"Sure will," Roxen said, as she carried stage props through to another room.  
"You know," Blas said, "I've got a really good feeling about this year."  
"Well," said Gjon, "It certainly can't be any worse than the last one."  
They all had to laugh at that a little. But he was right, it really couldn't.  
  


* * *

  
It was the night of the grand final. The two semi-finals had gone by without any problems, and now, the final was starting. They felt like they had been waiting forever for this moment. Who would win the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest? As the contestants sat there, that didn't really matter to them. They were just happy to be there, happy that the problems of the world seemed far behind them. Maybe 2020 was just a bad year. This one had already had a much better start. On the 31st of December 2020, parties broke out all over the world. The New Year's Eve celebrations were so much bigger than usual. Because people were so excited to see the end of that year, for 2020 to finally be over. 2021 felt like a whole different world than 2020. For the first time, the world was full of hope. Hope that they could have a better future, that they could put the crisis of last year in the past. 2020 was over, it was finished. And the Eurovision entrants couldn't be happier with that.  
  


* * *

  
"We have a special guest tonight," came the voice of Edsilia Rombley, one of the hosts of the event, "A special guest who has given a very special present to all of us. He was Italy's Eurovision contestant in 2017, please welcome, Francesco Gabbani!"  
The audience roared as Francesco stepped out. For his work in helping to create the vaccine, and in salvaging pieces from the lab after the attack by America, he was now a national hero in Italy. From the backstage, Diodato cheered louder than ever. Looking out across the audience, many Italian flags were waving. They probably weren't all Italians, but people thanking Italy for their role in stopping this crisis. The show itself was dedicated to everyone who had helped during the pandemic. You couldn't really hold the event without talking about the issue at least a little, after all. Even if it wasn't what most people wanted to talk about, it made sense to acknowledge it. To pay tribute to those who had risked everything to help others.  
After Francesco performed one of his songs and went backstage, the 2021 entrants clapped and cheered as he walked back into the greenroom. He was the reason any of them were here, after all. Without the vaccine, it was uncertain if they would have even been able to have a contest this year. The hosts then went back onto the stage to talk to the audience one more time before the first song of the night would be performed. The first entrant of the night was Blas Cantó from Spain. As he walked over to the stage to get ready to perform his song, he thought about all the progress they had made over the past year.  
The world still had a lot of work to do, but with coronavirus gone for good, the future looked a little brighter.


End file.
